In the motivation game, it's too easy to lose.
We educators scrutinize the numbers before our students even step foot in the classroom. We already know which students need which intervention, which are at risk, and which are performing up to standard. We know demographics and every statistical implication they bring. But what do we really know?
In my high-priority, at-risk middle school, I taught class after class of students who didn't trust themselves, their teachers, or classroom strategies. More than half my students were performing at least three years below grade level, and almost half had never passed a state exam. If I saw my students for their test scores, even I wouldn't be motivated to try. I had to do something different. Something radical. I decided to get to know my students not for who they were or had been but for who they wanted to be.
They wanted to be great people with stable jobs, a house, a backyard, a family, and two pets. They wanted to be just, courageous, intelligent, and resourceful. They wanted to make a difference. They wanted to be different. So I treated them accordingly. They were no longer bound by scores or neighborhoods. They were free to challenge and shape themselves into the best selves they could be. We started with a few nontraditional assignments, and so can you.
The First Homework
The first homework of the year is a series of reflective mini-essays assigned on the first day to the parents, guardians, or most-trusted adults of each student. There are four instructions:
- Describe your child's strengths.
- Describe the moment you were proudest of your child.
- Describe your goal for your child in my class this year.
- What is your preferred method of contact?
Before sending the assignment home, give your students these simple rules:
- The first three responses should each be at least 100 words long.
- If your parents/guardians don't feel comfortable writing in English, you can transcribe.
- Remind your parents/guardians every day until it's done, because I need it by Friday.
This assignment accomplishes at least two things:
- You will never have to try to convince your students that you are different and that this year will be different after you assign this task to someone other than them.
- You are helping your students build empathy toward their parents/guardians, who are charged with nagging them until their responsibilities are fulfilled.
Team Building
In the first week, conduct brief team-building exercises every day to build community within the class, establish trust, and provide opportunities for everyone to learn from one another. These exercises can focus on different combinations of content, hard skills, and soft skills—or they can just be for fun. Here are some examples I've used:
- <LINK URL="http://lead4ward.com/playlists/" LINKTARGET="_blank">Lead4ward Instructional Strategies Playlists</LINK> (content-related): This resource mentions the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills in the introduction, but you can adapt these activities to almost any content.
- <LINK URL="https://www.kaganonline.com/free_articles/research_and_rationale/330/The-Essential-5-A-Starting-Point-for-Kagan-Cooperative-Learning" LINKTARGET="_blank">The Essential 5: A Starting Point for Kagan Cooperative Learning</LINK> (hard skills–related): This is a free "starter" from Kagan Publishing and Professional Development that outlines its top five collaborative structures, all of which can help students build content and procedural knowledge.
- <LINK URL="http://www.teachthought.com/critical-thinking/10-team-building-games-that-promote-critical-thinking/" LINKTARGET="_blank">10 Team-Building Games That Promote Critical Thinking</LINK> (soft skills–related)
- <LINK URL="http://www.icebreakers.ws/team-building" LINKTARGET="_blank">Team Building Activities/Icebreakers</LINK> (just for fun)
Be sure to plan for at least one exercise per week after that. Let your students see you be serious. Let them see you be silly. Let them see and experience that they can relate to you, but never tell them to do so. Once you do, you've lost the motivation game. Be genuine.
One-Minute Interviews
On Thursday of the second week, assign the class an independent task so that you can meet individually with every student for one-minute interviews. In this time, ask students fun or serious rapid-fire questions that they can respond to with one word. Pay special attention to their body language and types of responses. These will let you know
- How well they know themselves.
- How they behave under the pressures of time constraint.
- How developed their creative thinking skills are.
- How much trust they have in you.
What if a student doesn't want to answer? Don't fret. Hand them the question list and ask them to do the asking. If that still doesn't work, ask and answer your own questions. Once you challenge a student in an activity that is meant to build a relationship, you've lost the motivation game. Be flexible.
The Second Homework
For homework that night, have students respond to the following questions in any format they choose:
- What's one thing you want to accomplish in this class?
- What is your proudest moment?
- What kind of person do you want to be?
- What is something you're really good at that you'd like to teach me?
- Describe the best teacher you've had so far. What did he or she do to be so memorable?
- What was your reaction when you read your parents' letter?
Collect the responses on Friday for some interesting weekend reading. Be sure to acknowledge their responses, perhaps with a little note or two in the margins. Once you ignore their effort, you've lost the motivation game. Be invested.
For your own record keeping, take a note of all the goals they've set for themselves and that parents have set for them. Sometimes it's not possible to cover everyone's goals within your curriculum's scope and sequence, but keep an eye out for extracurricular opportunities that present themselves over the year so that you can refer these to those students. Once you've allowed day-to-day happenings to stand in the way of your students' visions of themselves, you've lost the motivation game. Be focused.
Be the teacher who analyzes these first relationship-focused assignments as vigorously as you do test scores and you are on your way to winning the motivation game.
